At the touchscreen of the new Mayer panel saw, company owner Michael Bretzger himself selects the cutting patterns previously created in the office with the Ardis cutting optimization software and presses "Start". The handling gantry of the connected chaotic automatic storage system immediately starts moving and retrieves the first designated panel for the job. This panel is at the very top of the stack, eliminating the need for time-consuming restacking. The storage system looks tidy overall and only partially chaotic: about half of the stacks are single-type and single-format, with a panel size not much larger than 1 x 2 m. The other half of the stock consists mainly of a colorful mix of half-format panels. The gantry places the panel on the rear of the saw and immediately sets off to retrieve the next one. The panel pusher grips the panel, and Michael Bretzger executes the cutting pattern shown on the screen.
The master joiner founded his joinery in 2002 in Wallerstein, Donau-Ries district, Bavaria, and specialized in high-quality interior doors after a few years. He employs eight people in his now 1200 m² workshop. Before this investment, panel cutting was also performed on a Mayer panel saw, but it had to be loaded by hand. And since each door consists of two HDF face sheets, a wooden frame, and a core layer—such as extruded solid or tubular particleboard or a sound-absorbing three-layer sandwich of extruded particleboard—many stack changes were required at the saw. Each time, the machine operator had to take the old stack back to the storage area with a forklift and fetch a new one. However, he didn't place the stack on the floor; instead, he positioned the forklift so he could pull the panels directly onto the machine table.
To avoid constantly interrupting the workflow with material movements that also involved searching for materials, and to reduce the physical strain on employees, Michael Bretzger wanted to modernize his operation. He decided to add a 400 m² hall and invest in a storage-saw combination. It was difficult to find a manufacturer capable of moving the porous or multi-layered core materials, which cannot be handled with vacuum suction cups. The choice fell on a proposal from the Felder Group, which included a Mayer panel saw and a Barbaric storage system. In addition to vacuum suction cups, the storage system also features a side clamping device. It proved more cost-effective to replace the old saw with a new one rather than integrating it with the storage system.
State-of-the-art technology and ergonomics
Michael Bretzger says: "Fetching materials is a hassle! It's physically demanding and slows us down. With our storage-saw combination from Felder, we are now at the cutting edge of technology and ergonomics."
